The MEPs on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) are drawing up their draft compromise on the Retail Investment Strategy, put forward by the rapporteur, Stéphanie Yon-Courtin (Renew Europe, French), with a view to adopting their position in a vote scheduled for Wednesday 20 March.
The European Parliament rapporteur said she is optimistic that the project will be completed during this legislature. However, the political groups remain divided on the issue of retrocessions (see EUROPE 13278/24), the commissions in the form of outpayments that an intermediary may receive from a credit institution in connection with the financing of an application.
In the ECON Committee, there are two opposing perceptions. While retrocessions are part of an essential financial advisory activity for MEPs on the right of the hemicycle, they are inevitably a source of conflicts of interest on the left.
The European Commission was initially considering a ban on retrocessions, before finally proposing a partial ban (see EUROPE 13187/21), but Ms Yon-Courtin disagrees.
“A partial or total ban on retrocessions would not be the miracle solution to all our problems (...) Access to advice and the quality of the advice must be guaranteed for every European citizen when they wish to invest their money. That’s the whole point of our discussions on the issue of retrocessions and value for money”, explained Ms Yon-Courtin to EUROPE on Friday 16 February. She assured that “a compromise will be found that strikes a balance between these two politically sensitive points”.
Another source close to the matter said that MEPs were “not yet in a landing phase” of the negotiations for the time being.
Digitalisation. According to the latest draft compromises, of which EUROPE has obtained a copy, another major issue concerns the supervision of capital markets in the digital age.
“While [digitalisation] offers many opportunities by facilitating investment, it comes with many risks, especially for young people who are more vulnerable to abuse. This is particularly the case with the rise of ‘finfluencers’ who promote products online of which they have little or no knowledge. It is therefore time to regulate these ‘financial advisers 2.0’ to protect our young citizens”, explained Ms Yon-Courtin.
Spearheading the Capital Markets Union (CMU) project, the Retail Investment Strategy aims to stimulate the investment activities of retail investors by strengthening their protection.
The texts affected by the draft revision are the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II), the Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD), the Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities Directive (UCITS), the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD), the Access to Insurance and Reinsurance Activities Directive (Solvency II) and the Regulation on Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPs).
“The bulk of the discussions on MiFID and IDD have yet to be finalised”, said Ms Yon-Courtin.
Link to the latest draft compromises for a revised MiFID: https://aeur.eu/f/awt and IDD: https://aeur.eu/f/awu (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)